Floyd Cooper

Danitra Leaves Town

It's summer vacation, but Zuri Jackson isn't happy. What will she do all summer long in the city when her best friend, Danitra. Brown, the most splendiferous girl in town, is off to visit her family in the country? Write, of course! Through a series of letters, these two friends share with readers what childhood summers are made of. fireflies, Fourth of July, skies like a thick overcoat buttoned up with stars, family reunions, block parties, handball games...and coming back home, where true friendship always remains.

Floyd Cooper is the acclaimed illustrator of a number of children's books, including Joyce Carol Thomas's I Have Heard of a Land and Eloise Greenfield's Grandpa's Face. He received the Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award Honor for Brown Honey in Broomwheat Tea in 1994 and again for Meet Danitra Brown in 1995. He lives in Pennsylvania.